NBA News: Miami Heat Misses Out on Kyle Lowry, Agrees to Re-sign with Toronto Raptors

The Miami Heat and the potentially returning Big Three of LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade are running out of options to reload their roster.

Free agent guard Kyle Lowry agreed to remain with the Toronto Raptors for four more years in a contract extension worth $48 million, league sources notified Yahoo! Sports.

The fourth year of the deal is a player-option which Lowry can exercise if he wants to look for greener pastures. But right now his heart and soul is in Toronto. Lowry announced via social media site Twitter his decision to continue with the success and growth of the franchise.

This ain't Amir jersey y'all!! Lol..... it's for the 2014-15 season cause Toronto will be my home city http://t.co/kOFGonoKES

— Kyle Lowry (@Klow7) July 3, 2014

Re-signing Lowry has been the top priority of general manager Masai Ujiri since the beginning of the off-season. This is a breath of fresh air to a franchise that has seen a number of franchise cornerstones leave by demanding a trade or change teams during free agency which happened with Vince Carter and Chris Bosh. During the rebuilding years, Toronto also struggled to lure potential players and had to build through the draft snatching jewels in Demar Derozan, Terrence Ross and Jonas Valanciunas.

With his decision to stay, Lowry's popularity with the fans is expected to soar higher and his marketability to gain momentous proportions. The 28-year-old stocky point guard has been the target of several contending teams especially the Miami Heat who were looking to solidify a position of weakness during their recent title run. Other teams who were hot on the heels of Lowry were his former team Houston Rockets and the Dallas Mavericks among others.

In his second full season with the Raptors, Lowry registered borderline all-star numbers of 17.9 points, 7.4 assists and 4.7 rebounds per outing.